Meddling for the Greater Good
by thatblue
Summary: The TARDIS gives the Doctor and Donna a push.


**A/N:I know that I have several stories going that need an update, but I kind of had a stressful day so I wanted to write something that would make me smile. So this is the result.**

"Are you ready to go?" the Doctor asked.

He was standing a respectable and safe distance away from her. He kept looking at her, and then back down to his hands- which he was currently wringing. It made Donna frown. She had told him that she wasn't going to go anywhere until he got his TARDIS to stop writing messages of love. Messages that seemed to be from the Doctor to Donna.

The Doctor claimed that they didn't come from him. He also claimed that they were in no way his messages of undying devotion and affection. She didn't know if she believed him or not.

It had been two days since it had all started. The first one had come when she was lying in bed, wishing she was sleeping. She had been exhausted before she had lain down, she could barely keep her eyes open.

She simply hadn't been able to sleep, though. That was why, when it happened, she almost thought she was hallucinating. It was a message on her ceiling- a ceiling that had previously looked plain and white- but there it was.

It almost glowed, a bright neon pink- kind of tacky if you asked her- and it said plainly- **The Doctor Loves You. **She had shaken it off, the Doctor had told her that the TARDIS liked to play jokes and that was the last of, what she hoped was mischief, for the night.

It wasn't until she had awoken the next morning and was brushing her teeth that she decided something else was going on. Right there on the mirror- which had in fact never said another thing the entire time she had been there- was another message of love. **He Thinks You Are Beautiful And He Loves You.**

She had promptly gone to the Doctor, who had told her he had no idea what was going on. He had vowed to fix it, and she had given him her condition. There would be no running, and getting thrown in a jail until he had it fixed. She figured that was a good motivation. It was all the things she thought he considered to be great fun.

She had gone off to explore, and from then on she could barely turn anywhere without the haunting words. She felt like she was being stalked. She had turned to yelling, but it had done nothing but make the words more frequent.

She received the messages in this order, and had written them in her journal as proof:

1: **The Doctor loves you**

**2: He thinks you are beautiful and he loves you**

**3: He wants to give you lots of Time Lord babies**

**4: He dreams of you at night**

**5: He thinks about you in the shower**

The list went on from there, and really got quite a bit more graphic and detailed.

Finally last night, she lost it a little. Her ceiling proposed to her, in a weird display that looked like fireworks, but no fizzle.

**Donna Noble, Will You Marry Me? Love, the Doctor.**

She had found the Doctor under the console, a post he hadn't really left since she had first come to him. She half suspected that he was only hiding, but now she could hear him talking to his machine.

"What are you doing to me?" he asked. His voice was so soft, and he sounded weary. "She's going to hurt us both."

Donna smiled.

She wouldn't hurt either one of them, not really. But it was best that he thought that. Feeling a little guilty she went to make him a cup of tea, and dig out a muffin from her secret stash.

She carried it to him, calling to him as she entered the console room. He didn't appear at first, so she made her way over to where he was working and stomped her foot.

"Ow," he said. He lifted his head out of the grating, and frowned at her saying, "What did you do that for?"

"Sorry," she said. She wasn't though.

She offered him the items and went about explaining the newest message. He denied it again, looking properly helpless. His hair was wild, and that was saying something that she would notice. It was sticking up straight in some directions but mostly it was pushed around like little tornados had blown through it.

He tugged on it when he was stressed, and it was evident that he was stressed. She managed to feel a little guiltier. The truth was that she wasn't overly upset about the messages, but she didn't want to see them if that wasn't what he felt. She really didn't even want to see them if he did, but she had always been a direct approach kind of girl.

"I can't figure this out, Donna," he said. He finished his tea in unhealthy gulp. "Maybe we should go somewhere tomorrow. Give her a break… and us too?"

When he looked all pouty like that, like a beautiful mess, she couldn't really say no.

"Sure," she said.

Relief didn't begin to cover the look that fell over his face. He looked exhausted, and she wanted to pull him into her arms. That might have an opposite effect of the distant attitude she had been hanging onto by a thread.

"Let's go to bed, Doctor," she said.

He looked up at her, surprised, but too weary to argue. She hadn't meant to push him this hard.

She led him to his room, and left him at the doorway with a soft apology. She told him that it was okay, and she didn't blame him.

She had gone back to her bed, and by some mercy there were no more words in the night.

And now there they were, on some alien planet, back to routine. She decided not to mention any more instances- not even the very graphic description of someone's fantasies that had filled her bedroom wall. Whoever had inspired it had a very vivid imagination, and she couldn't be entirely sure that it wasn't her that was the source.

He was a bit more handsome than she was willing to admit.

They left the TARDIS, him acting too timid for comfort. Donna reached out and took his hand into hers, and she could feel the breath he exhaled. Probably he was thinking that she was going to ask to go home if he couldn't make him stop.

He couldn't have been more wrong. That was just one thing, on a long list of things, being with the Doctor would be worth. If she would stay in the darkest of prison cells, and being sold into slavery only to be rescued at the last minute, then she was here for good.

If she was willing to stay after they were forced to be stripped and put in a temple as living images a societies gods, she was in this for good and bad. Those words weren't the most uncomfortable thing that had happened this week.

In fact, aside from the fact that she was supposed to pretend she didn't like him, she actually thought it was a bit sweet. In a weird…very Doctor, sort of way.

"So where are we?" she asked him. She didn't like the quiet him. It worried her.

He beamed at her, the first smile in what felt like years. He said, "We are on the planet of Caster."

"Odd name," she said.

He simply nodded and then said, "Do you believe me, Donna?"

"About the whole love thing?" she asked him, pausing in their walk.

She looked around; the planet looked pretty well empty. She could be wrong but it didn't look like there would be any running in their future.

"Yes," he said. He cleared his throat and his free hand went towards his hair that had been tamed.

She slapped it away, gently. She said, "Sure, I believe you. I was being too hard on you, it's not so bad, I suppose."

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said.

They walked on, and made small talk. She could almost forget that they weren't supposed to be any more then friends. He didn't pull his hand from hers, and she didn't make him.

She supposed that was why the words were such a problem. Aside from the few graphic ones, with description of things that she would never do, or things that would never come near her bottom, she wished they were true.

Just a little.

He was a good man, under the pile of weird alien and scary outer shell.

She felt the ground shake beneath her feet. She looked over at him and he was grinning. She knew he thought running was what made life complete, and if you could almost die, then it was that much better.

She spun around, and there was a dinosaur. At least that was what she thought it was, and she began to run, but he held her.

"You act like I try to get you killed," he said. "Stay, it'll be fine. It won't hurt you, will you big fellow?"

Donna eyed of the Doctor's new friend. It had three horns and it was at least fifteen feet tall. She could look beyond that, she really could, but the animal leg that was stuck in its large teeth made her a little worried.

"Doctor?" she asked, trying to pull back without making it too obvious.

"Donna," he said. He was getting a little pout in his lip now. "It's fine. This is a Megloaperarous. They are herbivores."

Donna thought it over and finally said, "Animals aren't vegetables."

He gave a long suffering sigh. Finally he said, "No, Donna. They aren't."

She was starting to hate him a little again. She said, "Well, maybe you should remind him of that, because he has leftovers in his teeth."

She pointed and he seemed to notice for the first time. He looked at her, and heaven help her he shrugged.

He said, "Guess I was wrong."

He took her hand and they ran, the Meglo…whatever… deciding this was a fun game of chase. Only in this instance if they were tagged it was likely to be with teeth and would end in their death. All in all it was normal, and she couldn't even think about slapping him.

He was grinning the whole trip back to the TARDIS, and they barely made it. She was fairly sure she could feel the air from the big animals jaw snap shut behind her, but then they were both inside.

She thought it would be a relief, but the desktop had changed into something that looked like Valentine's Day had vomited. There were hearts everywhere, and some sort of soppy love song playing.

He looked sheepish, standing there. She saw his hands going for his hair, and she snapped. She rushed up the ramp, grabbing his hands and pushing her lips against his.

She would have pleaded insanity if he wasn't kissing her back. Donna was fairly sure the TARDIS chuckled, but she was too busy to care.


End file.
